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Possible definitions for melitis

colitis
Inflammation of the colon, especially of its mucous membranes. Spastic colitis, with usually temporary abdominal pain and diarrhea, may account for 50% of all digestive-tract illnesses. In ulcerative colitis, the inflamed membranes develop patches of tiny ulcers; the diarrhea contains blood and mucus. It often becomes chronic, with sustained fever and weight loss; complications and death may result. If treatment with sulfasalazine or steroids does not control it, part or all of the colon may need to be removed.


Elytis
Greek poet. The scion of a prosperous Cretan family, he began publishing verse influenced by French Surrealism in the 1930s. His first two collections reveal his love of the Greek landscape and the Aegean Sea. During World War II he joined the antifascist resistance and became something of a bard among young Greeks. One of his best-known poems is The Axion Esti (1959); later works include The Sovereign Sun (1971) and The Little Mariner (1986). He won the Nobel Prize in 1979.


ileitis
Chronic inflammation of part of the small or large intestine (strictly, of the ileum). A more serious type, regional ileitis (Crohn's disease), involves both small and large intestines. Ileitis symptoms include chronic or intermittent, sometimes bloody, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Fever, weight loss, and anemia may occur and in Crohn's disease can cause progressive deterioration. Obstructions or abnormal connections between coils of intestine may develop. Simple ileitis has short-term causes, and many patients recover completely. In Crohn's disease, which may result from an autoimmune defect, remissions and relapses continue for years, causing the intestine's wall to thicken, its channel to narrow, and its lining to ulcerate. X-ray films showing these features are diagnostic. Drug treatment may help, but there is no known cure, and the disease often requires removal of part of the intestine.


militia
Military organization of citizens with limited military training who are available for emergency service, usually for local defense. In many countries the militia is of ancient origin. The Anglo-Saxons required every able-bodied free male to serve. In colonial America, it was the only defense against hostile Indians when regular British forces were not available. In the Amer. Revolution, the militia, called the Minutemen, provided the bulk of the Amer. forces. Militias played a similar role in the War of 1812 and the Amer. Civil War. State-controlled volunteer militias in the U.S. became the National Guard. The U.S. in recent decades has seen a rise in so-called civilian or unorganized militias, paramilitary organizations of uncertain legal status whose members profess to be patriots training to protect the U.S. from threats to its sovereignty from within and without. Many have white-supremacist leanings, and some have been implicated in terrorist attacks (incl. the 1995 ...

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